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New De Lijn trams will carry passengers from Flemish Brabant into the capital 4
Where to find the middle ages in Bruges after you’ve visited the new Historium 8
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Forever Yoors The Flemish artist who lived in Gypsy caravans and brought tapestry into the 20th century 11
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Meet the middle ages Bruges’ long-awaited new attraction Historium brings the city’s medieval past to life Alan Hope
Almost seven years and €10 million in the making, Bruges’ Historium finally opens this weekend, and the result is a sensory expedition back in time. Visitors will experience the sights, sounds and (selected) smells of a vibrant medieval port city.
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he year is 1435, and you’re following the bustling throng through the thriving port city of Bruges. Along the way you pass the studio of a famous artist and are surprised to see a prominent priest on his knees as the painter sketches his portrait. You pass through the vast covered harbour where flat-bottomed boats unload the latest cargoes from ocean-going ships moored at Sluis. In the street, a man butchers the carcass of a pig, and, as you pass along to the fish market, a rat scuttles in front of your feet. Suddenly the scent of jasmine and sandalwood engulf your senses as you approach the Oriental bath house. Everything about the scene is real – except the bit about the scurrying rat. You’re at the new Historium Brugge
attraction, which opens this weekend. The attraction, at the very centre of the city, is a €10 million investment that recreates Bruges at the time of its peak as a world city. Every year, Bruges welcomes about four million visitors from all over the world, attracted by the chocolate, the museums, the canals, the horse-and-carriage tours and the medieval atmosphere. The location of Historium is a prime piece of real estate: Markt 1, a former government building overlooking the city’s most famous square. The entrance is through an enormous porch in which a wooden floor has been laid. On one entire wall facing the entrance is a panorama of Bruges as it looked in 1435, its perspective such that it seems as if you’re gazing out over the whole city as it then was. The ground floor and the courtyard outside are open to visitors without paying the entry fee. In the courtyard are public toilets, vending machines and an amphitheatreshaped meeting point for tour guides. In the entrance hall are a museum shop, a Pol Depla chocolaterie, a desk of the Bruges tourist office and a massive media table for
12, composed of a giant interactive Samsung touchscreen display. There are also free lockers for visitors to stash whatever they’re carrying, even pushchairs and buggies.
Jacob, your guide for the duration A visit to the attraction proper begins when you scan the barcode on your ticket and make your way into the show. The visit to Historium is built around a fictional narrative: Jacob, an apprentice to the great Flemish primitive painter Jan Van Eyck, is sent to pick up Anna, the model for the Madonna in Van Eyck’s “Virgin and Child with Canon Joris van der Paele” (which Van Eyck was working on in 1435). That’s the start of a love story and a pursuit through the medieval harbour city, which takes the protagonists (and the visitors) to Van Eyck’s studio, to the port and the market, through the alleys to a bath house and, finally, to a breathtaking view of the city about which we won’t leak any details so as not to spoil the surprise. “We wanted the visit to happen at the rhythm of the story,” explains René Tolenaars, in charge of marketing ``continued on page 3